Random thoughts running frenetically through a labyrinth of synaptic strands of goo

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Welcome to my blog. Here you will find information that is both interesting and useless. You can even see how Steve, my camera, sees the world through my eyes, or get your hands on my latest novel, Jihad Joe at:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/119633

Thanks for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the coffee and cake. Sorry we ran out of donuts.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Trump and the freaking out of the EU

During Obama's excruciatingly long term in office, Europe's anti-American sentiment was on a slight decline as he steered a course left and further left on a course of globalism rather than nationalism.With the Trump election victory for the presidency, Europe's media has attacked our President-elect with a virulence last seen in the George W. Bush presidency. European TV, radio and print media have attacked Trump with editorial rage and venom over the election outcome.Their criticism shows a deep-rooted hatred for the United States and the American voters who decided that it was time to "drain the swamp," restore our military strength and boost our economy. Their anti-American sentiments will likely be an omnipresent aspect of our relations while Trump is president.While EU opinion-manipulators say that Trump allegedly poses a threat to global order, the truth is, he is being handed a world significantly more insecure, chaotic and dangerous than it was when Barack Hussein Obama took the American helm in 2009, in spite of him claiming otherwise.The global disorder came from a lack of America leading from the front, rather than from behind both home and abroad. Ongoing feeble decisions by Obama such as reducing our global military influence have created geopolitical power vacuums. Now they're being filled by countries and Islamic ideologies that are dangerously hostile to Western interests and values.Since Obama has been president, China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and Islamic extremism have challenged us, mostly with impunity. Obama does nothing but talk, and after eight years of this anemic approach, they laugh at us and despise us. Iran even tests our limits in the Gulf of Hormuz.While European leaders have remained generally silent about Obama's foreign policy failures, they are now attacking Trump for pledging to "make America great again." It's clear they don't have our best interests in mind.Germany, a country we helped to rebuild after WW2 with the Marshall Plan, is the most vocal in Europe's anti-Americanism. For seventy years we have spent hundreds of millions of US dollars annually to guarantee Germany's security and all they had to do was honor a NATO pledge to spend a minimum of 2% of GDP on defense spending. In 2015, they spent only 1.16% of GDP and 1.15% this year. And German officials are angry that Trump is asking them to pay their fair share for their own defense! Where have we heard the term fair share before? Hmmm.In Germany, Der Spiegel one of Europe's largest-circulation news magazines, published a cover with a giant meteor in the shape of Trump's head careening toward Earth. The headline reads: "The End of the World (As We Know It). The issue features over 50 pages of anti-Trump propaganda.One article by Dirk Kurbjuweit, "One-Hundred Years of Fear: America Has Abdicated Its Leadership of the West" said:

"For 100 years, the United States was the leader of the free world. With the election of Donald Trump, American has now abdicated that role. It is time for Europe, and Angela Merkel, to step into the void . . .

"Trump, who wants nothing to do with globalization; Trump, who preaches American nationalism, isolation, partial withdrawal from world trade and zero responsibility for a global problem like climate change . . .

"We now face emptiness--fear of the void. What will happen to the West, to Europe, to Germany without the United States as its leading power?"

"It really happened. He did it. Donald Trump proved all experts wrong . . . A man who . . . preaches hate and snubs America's most important partners will run the most powerful country on Earth. It is a political catastrophe . . . "

An so on.

But not all European politicians felt the same. Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders, an outspoken critic of radical Islam wrote: "America has just liberated itself from political correctness. The American people expressed their desire to remain a free and democratic people. Now it is time for Europe. We can and will do the same!"

I think Wilders said it best. We need a new direction--the old direction--that will put us back on course.